Formula One news
Race to forget for Toyota
30 September 2007 / Results / PhotosToyota endured a home race to forget with Jarno Trulli classified 13th while Ralf Schumacher did not finish. The team now heads to the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai International Circuit for the penultimate race of the season.
"It was a very difficult race from the beginning," said Trulli. "Even behind the safety car the conditions were really bad - there was a lot of spray and it was hard to see anything on the straight. Behind the first safety car unfortunately I made a mistake in the hairpin. While I was warming up the tyres I shifted down and this caused a shift down of one gear too much and the car spun. Because of that I lost several positions, then when the safety car came in the race was very wet and visibility was really, really poor. They were difficult conditions and I was suffering with lots of aquaplaning and poor grip. I think it was a tough afternoon for everyone out there and obviously I am disappointed with this result."
Ralf Schumacher commented, "We've had a tough time all weekend and today that continued. Unfortunately my radio stopped working midway through the race but then with all the rain, water got into our electrics and that forced me to pit again. My crew fixed the problem but we had a puncture so that was that. It wasn't a very enjoyable race because of the rain, which made the track really slippery and meant there was pretty much zero visibility when we were running under safety car at the start. It was a real challenge to drive with all the spray but the conditions improved a bit as the race went on. There's not much more to say about this weekend - I just hope we can get a better result next week in China."
Team principal Tadashi Yamashina added, "Today it was very difficult for us. Towards the end of the race, on Ralf's car, the main electronics box failed because of water in the cockpit but the team did well to fix the problem so Ralf could continue and race in front of our Japanese fans. Then we found the new set of tyres had a slow puncture, we think this was because of debris. For Jarno, we still have to analyse what happened because obviously the car wasn't competitive. We need to focus our energy on improving mechanical grip and aerodynamics. We must push very hard to make improvements. Our car was not competitive in these conditions but now we will do our best for the Chinese Grand Prix. I would like to say congratulations to Fuji Speedway for hosting this race for the first time in 30 years. The facilities here are excellent and the race was well organised. It is a shame we could not get the result we wanted in this race."
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